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Senate Democrats now have their plan to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, but it’s unlikely that Senate Republicans will give it the green light. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unveiled Democrats’ plan to prevent the subsidies from expiring by the end of this year on Thursday. Senate Democrats’ strategy, which mirrors the option on the table put forth by House Democrats, would extend the subsidies for three years with no tweaks or reforms. 

‘I’m announcing that Senate Democrats will introduce legislation for a clean, three-year extension of the current [Obamacare] tax credits,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘This is the bill, a clean, three-year extension of [Obamacare] tax credits that Democrats will bring to the floor of the Senate for a vote next Thursday. And every single Democrat will support it.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., guaranteed Senate Democrats a proposal of their choosing, but the hope in the upper chamber is that a bipartisan compromise would emerge in time for the vote next week, which is expected to come by Dec. 11. 

However, no such plan has materialized given a litany of issues both sides have with moving forward. Senate Republicans want reforms, like income caps and the inclusion of language that would prevent the enhanced subsidies from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, while Democrats, who are open to some reforms, largely want a clean extension of the subsidies as illustrated by Schumer’s plan. 

Whether Senate Republicans put forth their own plan remains in the air, too. 

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, have been working on a Republican proposal, which likely largely centers on funneling the subsidy money into Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs) rather than directly to insurance companies. 

The duo pitched ideas and proposals to Republicans during their weekly closed-door meeting on Tuesday, but no unified strategy emerged. 

Schumer argued that Democrats’ proposal would be the last shot the Republicans and Congress would have to prevent the subsidies from lapsing and stopping healthcare premiums from skyrocketing. 

‘If Republicans block our bill, there’s no going back,’ he said. ‘We won’t get another chance to halt these premium spikes before they kick in at the start of the New Year. Those insurance premiums in January will land like a hammer blow on the American people.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ‘acted within his authority’ by sharing sensitive details about Houthi strikes over Signal, Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker said after viewing a report from the Pentagon Inspector General (IG). 

‘It is clear from the reports that the Secretary acted within his authority to communicate the information in question to other cabinet level officials,’ the Mississippi Republican said in a statement. 

‘It is also clear to me that our senior leaders need more tools available to them to communicate classified information in real time and a variety of environments. I think we have some work to do in providing those tools to our national security leaders.’

U.S. officials often use Signal, an encrypted private messaging app, to communicate, even for sensitive information when they or the recipients of their messages are not near a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).

Sources familiar with the report told Fox News that it had also determined Hegseth ‘created risks to operational security’ by sharing details of the March Houthi strikes with Cabinet officials over Signal. His actions ‘could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots,’ one source familiar with the report said it determined. 

Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said of the report: ‘This Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along – no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved and the case is closed.’

A classified version of the report has been handed over to the Senate Armed Services Committee and is available for members of the committee to view. An unclassified, redacted version will be made public on Thursday. 

Trump administration officials used Signal to discuss sensitive military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen in March. Then-national security advisor Mike Waltz had created the chat, which included many of Trump’s top Cabinet members, and inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.

The IG launched a probe in April following requests from top lawmakers on Capitol Hill. It was intended to examine whether Secretary Pete Hegseth improperly discussed operational plans for a U.S. offensive against the Houthis in Yemen and will also review ‘compliance with classification and records retention requirements,’ according to a memo from Inspector General Steven Stebbins.

Hegseth’s Signal messages revealed F-18, Navy fighter aircraft, MQ-9s, drones and Tomahawks cruise missiles would be used in the strike on the Houthis.

‘1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),’ Hegseth said in one message notifying the chat of high-level administration officials that the attack was about to kick off.

‘1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),’ he added, according to the report.

‘1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)’

‘1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)’

‘1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.’

‘MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)’

‘We are currently clean on OPSEC’ — that is, operational security.

Waltz later wrote that the mission had been successful. ‘The first target — their top missile guy — was positively ID’d walking into his girlfriend’s building. It’s now collapsed.’

Trump administration officials have insisted that nothing classified was shared over the chat. The report should offer clarity on that claim.

Thursday will be a contentious day for the Pentagon — Adm. Frank M. Bradley, commander of Special Operations Command, will also be on Capitol Hill to offer his account of the Sept. 2 ‘double tap’ strike on alleged narco-traffickers. 

After one strike on a boat carrying 11 people and allegedly carting drugs toward the U.S. left two survivors clinging to the wreckage, Bradley ordered another to take out the remaining smugglers.

Lawmakers and legal analysts have claimed that killing shipwrecked survivors is a war crime. Bradley is briefing leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. 

Original reporting by the Washington Post claimed that direction came from the top: Hegseth had directed the commander to ‘kill them all.’ But Hegseth claimed he issued no such directive and did not witness the second strike. He said Bradley made the decision on his own, but he stands by it. U.S. officials who spoke with the New York Times said Hegseth did not order the second strike.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

HURRICANE MILLS, T.N . – Two medics rolled Ashlee Sokalski onto a backboard and fitted the 19-year-old with a neck brace in the middle of the dirt motocross track.

Other teen racers whizzed past on their off-road motorcycles, no halt to the race, no safety flaggers in sight.

Sokalski had sharpened her race skills for years and finally broke through a Mideast regional qualifier to be here at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch among the dust and roar of the sport that ran in her family’s blood.

But just minutes into the race, Sokalski flew off her Yamaha YZ250 motorcycle and another rider ran her over.

Her neck, skull, shoulder, leg and wrist were broken. Her right lung was crushed. She was barely breathing and had a faint pulse.

The record of the 2010 national motocross championship listed Sokalski’s official result as DNF: Did not finish.

The injuries would kill her.

A USA TODAY investigation found that at least 158 children and teens have died on dirt bikes and at motocross tracks since 2000, more than six per year. That makes it the deadliest sport for young people – roughly seven times greater than tackle football.

Nineteen of the fatalities involved riders 10 years old or younger.

The sport is inherently dangerous, but fatal incidents follow a pattern where safeguards are ignored. The investigation showed riders of significantly different ages and sizes compete on the same courses, many of which include obstacles such as fences, trees, and vehicles too close to the tracks.

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Sokalski arrived at Nashville’s Vanderbilt Trauma Center three hours after her crash. She never regained consciousness and died five days later with her family at her side.

A devoted cohort of America’s young dirt bike racers nationwide are pulled to the sport that culminates each July at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. The week-long competition is filled with deafening engines, colorful race uniforms and the odor of race fuel exhaust in the air.

Those annual championship races are sanctioned and produced by the biggest names in amateur motocross racing, the American Motorcyclist Association and MX Sports. Track owners and race promoters nationwide often don’t enforce their own safety rules, the newspaper found.

Only a handful of states mandate safety requirements for motocross tracks, and most do not set age minimums. Some parents sign off on children as young as 4 driving motorbikes competitively.

A spokesperson for the AMA said it has longstanding safety protocols for its sanctioned events and can’t control unaffiliated tracks. Skirting standards results in expulsion from the AMA and participation in their preferred insurance program, the statement said.

Of the 158 deaths, nearly two-thirds occurred at a track. The others occurred at other off-road venues like dunes, trails and backyards. The review excluded on-road incidents.

Of the on-track wrecks, USA TODAY identified 65 deaths at tracks that host AMA-sanctioned events. It’s unclear in some cases if those deaths occurred during practice sessions or races.

Sanctioning and AMA-insurance requires track owners to attest they will adhere to safety requirements and watch two risk management YouTube videos.

The organization declined to release its own data on injuries and deaths but said “multiple tracks” had been stripped of their sanctioning in recent years.

“The overwhelming majority of youth fatalities do not occur at AMA-sanctioned events or AMA-insured tracks,” the AMA wrote in a statement. “The environment, supervision, and safety standards at non-sanctioned facilities vary widely and often do not reflect AMA requirements.”

USA TODAY was unable to confirm a tally of deaths at AMA-sanctioned events and insured facilities.

Similarly, race promoter MX Sports said it has no influence over the races it doesn’t produce.

MX Sports said its records showed two young riders had died at its own events since 2000. However, to qualify for those events, racers must compete at non-MX Sports competitions. USA TODAY’s analysis found 23 deaths at races that serve as qualifiers toward MX Sports’ flagship event.

National standards could prevent youth deaths. Tracks could have onsite medical staff, trained flaggers, split track times for different ages, insurance requirements and safety barricades.

On the floor of the Massachusetts Legislature last summer, MX Sports Event Director Tim Cotter testified in favor of more regulation and safety measures.

“They all sound difficult, but they are not and could be easily done,” Cotter said. “Every track in America should have those minimum standards.”

But they don’t, and the death rate that’s sevenfold football’s rate is making it the most dangerous youth sport, according to the review. In 2025, approximately 17,000 kids from ages 4 to 19 competed in an AMA-sanctioned motocross event, according to the organization.

The higher death rate associated with motocross aligns with research on race competition injuries that show it causes 20 injuries per 1,000 young riders. That’s compared to 4 per 1,000 in all high school sports and 12 per 1,000 in football.

Motocross deaths often go unexamined and uncounted when they occur on private property and without foul play. Highway motorcycle wrecks flow into a federal database, but deaths on off-road dirt bikes don’t.

Reporters scoured news accounts and online discussion boards and obtained ambulance, police and coroners’ reports to verify the number of deaths.

David Pingree, a former professional racer who covers the sport as a journalist, has become a critic of safety lapses that go unexamined.

“It’s not acceptable to go, ah, so sad. All right, on to the next race,” Pingree, now a firefighter paramedic, told USA TODAY. “This isn’t about finger pointing … when you have somebody die in an event you have to stop. Let’s analyze this. What happened here?”

Young and mixed riders

Dirt bike riding appeals to families since it has bikes for all rider sizes. You might see a 5-year-old on a miniature 50 cc bike that weighs 100 pounds riding on the same track as adults 50 years older on bikes that are 150 pounds heavier.

At races, competitors are strictly grouped by age and skill level. But on some tracks, everyone practices at the same time no matter what they’re riding. That means a child can operate a three-foot tall dirt bike that tops out at 25 mph alongside an adult on a race-machine tuned to hit 80 mph.

Because that disparity, known as “mixed riding,” can result in death or serious injury when crashes occur, the rules at most tracks ban it. The AMA, MX Sports and other major promoters agree that mixed track times should be avoided. But it’s largely an honor system at local tracks that assume parents are monitoring their children.

USA TODAY’s analysis found 12 children who died under such circumstances between 2000 and 2025. The youngest was 5-year-old Cody Fidler, who died at a North Carolina track in 2007 after colliding with 12-year-old boy on a bigger motorcycle. His family sued the track for not enforcing its rule against mixed riders. The case settled out of court.

The operators of a track in Wareham, Massachusetts didn’t enforce its rule banning mixed riders, according to a lawsuit filed in 2023. If they had, 13-year-old Ava Pioppi may have lived to realize her dream of becoming a pro rider.

Ava’s coach encouraged her to ride on the track on Labor Day 2021 even though older riders with bigger bikes were already there, according to the lawsuit.

Ava crashed after a jump and was crushed by a man on a larger motorcycle.

Her family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the track operators alleges they were negligent in mixing rider sizes and in failing to have liability insurance.

‘We know this lawsuit won’t bring Ava back, but we are continuing to try to cope with this loss,’ Ava’s mother, Wendy, said when the suit was filed in 2023. ‘We want to start by holding (her coach) and the track accountable for their actions in Ava’s death. We hope that speaking out will begin a discussion about how to make motocross safer for kids.’

The suit remained pending in the state’s Superior Court as of December 2025 and may be scheduled for trial in 2026. An owner of the Wareham track has denied they should be liable for the death.

Even when children ride beginner tracks with other kids on small bikes, the speed and awkward landings can make crashes deadly.

Those crashes lead to concussions, musculoskeletal injuries and fatal internal bleeding, said Charles Jennissen, an Iowa pediatric emergency doctor who specializes in off-road vehicle injury research.

“You’ll hear around the track you don’t dress for the ride, you dress for the crash. It’s an expectation you will get injured doing this,” Jennissen said. “Should we be doing that to our kids?”

Alexis Jones was the youngest child to die identified during the USA TODAY review.

The 4-year-old was wearing all the recommended safety gear, including a helmet and chest protector, when she clipped a tractor tire barrier at a track outside Medina, Ohio in 2011.

Alexis’ mother, Toni, said they bore the brunt of community criticism after the crash. But she pointed to nearly 400 children who die in swimming pools each year by comparison.

“It was a fluke accident. This was a place we spent family time together,” Jones said. “As a bereaved parent you play the blame game, but you won’t ever get those answers.”

Her daughter’s dirt bike had training wheels.

Medical care is lacking

Ashlee Sokalski’s mother, Tanya Burgess, traveled from Michigan to Tennessee for what turned out to be her daughter’s final race.

She assumed the major national event would have top-tier medical care and was shocked that, in her view, it did not. She later found out the assigned medical director for the race, James McGee, did not help Ashlee because he was lining up for his own race, set to begin minutes after the women’s event.

Instead, Burgess, a trauma nurse, and her husband, a paramedic, set Ashlee’s IV and assisted in her ventilation in the back of an ambulance themselves.

Ashlee and her sister, Amanda, began riding on the same bike as their dad in the backyard while in elementary school. By 10 they started bugging him for their own bikes and by 15 they had become regulars in the local racing scene in Michigan.

Racing became a way of life, traveling the Midwest and scrimping together money for fuel and parts.

“Amanda and Ashlee would feed off one another,” their father, Mike Sokalski, recalled. “They pushed one another, and it just was constant. It didn’t matter if we were in the woods or at the track.”

Amanda rushed from Michigan to the intensive care unit in Nashville in 2010 and arrived just seconds before her older sister took her final breaths.

In the years following Sokalski’s death, the safety of the sport became a crusade for her family.

Burgess launched a nonprofit to provide money for rider safety gear and to advocate for more medical care at the national races. The family bought a Freightliner box truck with a sleeper cab so Burgess could travel the country, pouring her grief into the effort.

“I was in deep. It became an obsession,” she said. “The sport doesn’t want to talk about injuries or death, it’s taboo. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the danger and call it a day. We have to make it safer.”

Other tracks haven’t followed suit. In many cases, there are still no medics on hand during practice sessions nationwide.

The lack of onsite first responders and dangers on tracks came as a surprise to Massachusetts parents Eric and Tammy Lippincott. They encouraged their son, Colby, to transition from riding the trails near their home to a local track to be safer. The eighth grader was not allowed to race despite dreaming of one day turning pro.

In the summer of 2024, the 14-year-old went to Diamond MX in Wareham, Mass. to ride and crashed into a tree. His father, a former police officer, saw the aftermath of the wreck and called 911, but there was no immediate service available in the township. It took 30 minutes for help to arrive.

Colby died at a nearby hospital.

“They didn’t just take his life — we’ll never get to see him graduate, we’ll never see him as the man he would have become,” Tammy Lippincott said. “Our joy is stolen, our laughter, our peace. This wasn’t a freak accident. It was a failure of oversight.”

In February, 12-year-old Dalton Hill of Milledgeville, Georgia died during an AMA-sanctioned race at Echeconnee MX motocross track in Lizella, Georgia.

His father, Phillip, believes flaggers contributed to his son’s death and the family filed a lawsuit in November. He said he thinks the flaggers were in the wrong location and inexperienced. The track owners have yet to file a response to the suit.

“They didn’t stop the race to give my son a chance to even get proper medical attention,’’ Phillip Hill said. His son crashed on the backside of a jump and was hit by two other racers.

“Where’s the flags at?’’ Phillip Hill said. “Now they’re trying to get to him. They can’t get to him because they can’t stop the race. So 15 minutes later, by then he’s done lost all his air, there’s no medical equipment out there (on the track), no red flag. It was really just a disaster.’’

Practice sessions around the country have even fewer emergency resources on site.

Levi Willis, 14, crashed and died waiting for an ambulance as another rider performed CPR on him in 2022 in Kentucky. Connor Webb, 18, crashed while practicing for an event in Las Vegas in 2019 — he died after safety officials didn’t realize the severity of his internal injuries.

A 13-year-old in Alaska died in 2008 after a crash racing his 85 cc bike – a model with a small engine designed for riders ages 11 to 14.

He overshot a jump and landed his bike’s front tire before flipping forward, Alaska State Troopers records show. The hospital was 17 miles away, and it took the ambulance 40 minutes to get him there.

In Massachusetts, the Lippincotts are lobbying for “Colby’s Law,” which would require tracks to maintain insurance, be inspected by the state and have minimum safety standards, including barriers and netting, emergency response plans and defibrillators. Tracks that did not comply would face fines of up to $5,000.

The law passed out of a committee in October and remained pending as of December 2025.

Some riders have pushed back, vocally opposing new safety measures in Massachusetts. One online petition said the changes, “not only threaten the sport but also the livelihoods and economic stability of those who operate these tracks.” The AMA also opposes the measure.

“We’re motocross enthusiasts. We’re not trying to get rid of the little guys,” Tammy Lippincott said. “The AMA, MX Sports, they have standard procedures in place, but some of these tracks fly under the radar and have none of it. Don’t wait for another family to lose everything.”

At the time of Colby’s accident, his parents didn’t know Diamond MX had been the site of Pioppi’s death two years earlier under previous ownership.

Kids die, little legislation is filed to help

New Jersey is among the few states that specifically require track safety standards, and California’s negligence laws say track owners have a duty to minimize risk to racers crashing into others with a warning system, such as flaggers.

Some states, including Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Wisconsin have youth age restrictions and require safety classes. Those rules apply to riding on public land, not tracks.

Nearly all states are like Massachusetts. They don’t regulate motocross tracks or set any safety standards. That means tracks can keep operating even if multiple children die.

That’s what happened at the Village Creek track in Fort Worth, Texas.

In April 2007, Justin Sutterer, 17, was competing at Village Creek in a qualifier to reach Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National event. The Missouri teen wrecked his motorcycle on the back side of a jump, was hit by two other riders and suffered a fatal neck injury. He was studying to become an engineer.

A month later, 18-year-old Justin Taylor was leading a race at Village Creek, on his way to qualifying for Ponca City nationals in Oklahoma. He lost control of his bike and crashed at nearly the same place as Sutterer and died. The teen was studying at an Austin community college and was engaged to be married.

At the time, Tarrant County Sheriff officials questioned why the track never notified police about the incident.

“Obviously there’s nothing that would indicate any kind of criminal activity, but nonetheless, it’s an unattended, unexpected death, so it had to be reported to the proper authorities, and an investigation has to be done,” Deputy Chief Jay Six told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The track was the scene of a third high-profile incident in 2019 when an 11-year-old rode his dirt bike into an unmarked 15-foot deep ditch, breaking his arm and both femurs.

His family sued. A jury ruled that the boy was riding without parental consent and the track failed to provide safety barriers around the ditch. It issued a $900,000 civil penalty against track owner Terry Cordray and his mother, who owns the land. Cordray didn’t have insurance and declared bankruptcy because he couldn’t afford to pay the judgment.

He reopened the track in March with a new name: Metroplex Motocross Park. Today, signs, in all caps, are posted at the entrance:

“Warning: Texas law limits the liability of a motorized off-road vehicle entity for injuries or death of a motorized off-road vehicle activity participant.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed that law in June 2025. Arkansas passed a similar law this year. Iowa and Missouri are considering comparable legislation — at the backing of the sport’s governing body, the AMA.

And while the AMA’s statement to USA TODAY said tracks that don’t follow its rules can’t get insurance via its preferred providers, Cordray had no problem doing so after reopening and enrolling in the AMA’s program.

He now is covered through Jones Birdsong, the insurance broker affiliated with the AMA.

The firm is a retail agent that finds policies by underwriters, said Matt Mowan, vice president of motorsports insurance.

The coverage has several requirements that must be attested to during an application: riders must be AMA members, races must have flaggers and onsite ambulances, and practices must have two licensed medical professionals in attendance. Both races and practices must divide riders by skill, bike size and class.

“The insurance companies don’t make the rules. They expect the promoters to follow an industry standard,” Mowan said. “The AMA will go down to 4 years old. This is an assumed risk. It’s a high-risk sport… When you’re doing a high-risk sport, accidents happen. People get injured, and when injuries are significant, they want to blame somebody.”

Family sport draws grieving families back together

Three weeks after Ashlee Sokalski’s funeral, her family organized a memorial ride at a track near their home in Michigan.

California rider Kristin Cosby, who had landed on the teen during the fatal race, didn’t attend and never returned to competitive racing.

“I sold my bikes right after that,” said Cosby, now 35, who said she struggled with alcohol abuse after the traumatic incident.

But Ashlee’s little sister, who used to share boots with her to save money, got back on her own Yamaha for the memorial.

Amanda Henderson finished college, started her career in financial planning, but would dedicate the next eight years of her spare time to racing. She says she did it for Ashlee.

Henderson, now 32, stopped competing in 2018. But on most summer days she can be found on the homemade tracks near her home, with her 4, 6 and 14-year-old children riding beside her.

Deciding whether to let them participate in the sport that turned fatal for her sister has been a struggle for Henderson, which she revisits often. So far, that has meant letting them get on dirt bikes for fun, but not in competition.

“People might think I’m a bit hypocritical because I won’t let them race, but it’s just not worth it to me,” Henderson said. “I still hurt every day from my sister being gone.”

And the sisters’ mother, Tanya, sold all of their traveling advocacy trucks and suspended the nonprofit they created. The all-consuming effort had become too much, and they felt they had achieved some progress at Loretta’s.

But she hit a brick wall with other safety efforts, and cringes every time she sees her daughter and grandchildren climb back on a bike.

Do you have a tip or other feedback? Did we miss an incident? Email us at npenz@usatoday.com

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Terence Crawford won more than a fight when he stunned Canelo Alvarez.

He won over the boxing community and sports fans who hardly knew him. Not just for the skill he showed in the boxing ring during the Sept. 13 mega-fight, but for the engaging personality he showed while making the rounds after becoming the undisputed super middleweight champion.

What a shame he decided to sully his reputation Wednesday, Dec. 3.

From inside a car, Crawford spewed profanity and delivered low blows in a rant against Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the WBC, one of boxing’s four sanctioning bodies.

Crawford fumed after the WBC stripped him of the championship belt he won from Alvarez. But it seemed like a very reasonable thing to do considering Crawford acknowledged he had not paid the WBC its $300,000 sanctioning fee.

The four sanctioning bodies charge a fee of about 3% of the purse. In turn, the bodies sanction fights with their respective championship belts at stake. In cases such as the fight between Crawford and Alvarez, several or all four of the sanctioning bodies can sanction the same fight, which allows boxers to fight for the undisputed championship.

Crawford and other boxers have questioned where the money goes. In a 2022 interview with Boxing Scene, Sulaimán cited overhead expenses, humanitarian work and developments in women’s boxing as reasons the WBC charges 3% for sanctioning fees. “What we do, everything goes back to boxing,” he said then.

This is not a blanket defense of the sanctioning bodies. But Crawford’s behavior can’t be defended, either.

It’s his right to object to a fee or even negotiate something lower. But for a boxer regarded as honorable, he handled it in disappointing fashion.

The clearly better option: to acknowledge before the fight he had no intention of paying the fees – and suffer the consequences.

It’s highly unlikely the WBC would have sanctioned the fight and made its belt available to Crawford without his agreeing to pay the fee.

That might seem inconsequential, especially the way Crawford degraded Sulaimán and the WBC belt during his rant. But Crawford wanted the undisputed super middleweight championship, and he captured it by winning all four belts – from the IBF, WBA, WBO and, yes, WBC.

But there he was Wednesday, behind the wheel of his truck, spewing venom in a shockingly different way than we’d come to know the easy-to-root-for-boxer, who proved charming outside of the ring.

At 38, Crawford is in the twilight of his career and no longer needs the WBC.

But there was no need to taint his own reputation.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

It’s hard to definitively say what happens in December of the college basketball season defines a season, but that’s what happened with the ACC and SEC in 2024-25.

In the second edition of the ACC/SEC challenge, the SEC dominated 14-2. It set the stage for a historic run for the SEC, while the ACC had another down year.

After the lopsided contest last season, it heightened what was at stake in this year’s cross-conference battle Dec. 2-3. The SEC could assert itself as the premier league in the sport, and ACC needed to reclaim some confidence.

The end result? Another SEC win. 

It’s not what the ACC hoped for, still without an outright challenge victory in three seasons. Yet it’s not the worst thing in the world.

In fact, the Atlantic Coast may be the true winner. 

The overall figure favors the SEC 9-7, but it didn’t leave this challenge looking anywhere near like the dominant conference it was a season ago. To be fair, it was going to be nearly impossible to replicate it.

This was a chance for the SEC to showcase it still has multiple Final Four contenders. After 16 games in two days, it’s hard to figure out exactly what the conference is, as the teams expected to be in the conversation didn’t look great. 

On the other hand, the ACC contenders flexed their muscles, and some wanting to take that next step showed they can lift a little more than last season. 

It starts with the two blue-bloods of the ACC — Duke and North Carolina. The Blue Devils hosted defending champion Florida in Cameron Indoor Stadium, and mostly handled the Gators until a late surge gave them a brief lead. Then Isaiah Evans hit the go-ahead 3-pointer to power Duke. 

With another outstanding performance from Cameron Boozer, Duke looks like it can return to the Final Four. Florida still can’t get a quality win, and defending that title looks like it will be a challenge.

Speaking of not beating good teams, Kentucky is in the same boat. It had the home-court advantage against North Carolina, but the Wildcats couldn’t buy a bucket in the second half and the Tar Heels took advantage, stealing a win inside Rupp Arena.

Then there was Tennessee. The Volunteers just beat Houston a week ago, and visited a Syracuse team that went 0-3 in the Players Era Festival and was still without its premier scorer in Donnie Freeman.

Tennessee looked lethargic. It’s star backcourt of Nate Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie really struggled and the Orange pulled off the stunner, ending its three-game skid by handing the Volunteers their second straight loss.

Three contenders all with bad nights, not to forget Notre Dame’s win over previously undefeated Missouri. It was a dreadful first day for the SEC, and it largely didn’t matter what happened on day two.

It wasn’t all bad with the SEC, notably with Trevon Brazile powering Arkansas convincingly past Louisville to hand the Cardinals their first loss of the season for the conference’s signature win. Vanderbilt beat Southern Methodist in a battle of unbeatens. Alabama also avoided a Clemson comeback and Auburn’s hot second half stretch pulled it away from NC State.

But the Crimson Tide and Tigers had to win their games, and the Commodores haven’t been tested just yet. A loss would’ve been catastrophic.

The SEC wanted to get some answers, and only left with more questions. Yes, it’s still just a month into the season, but there isn’t anyone in the SEC that screams it can confidently make a deep NCAA tournament run.

Sure it’s the common Duke and North Carolina that have those characteristics in the ACC, and Louisville can be thrown in there even though its outlook took a dip with the loss. You feel a whole lot better of what these contenders are capable of. It says plenty when Duke isn’t the only team carrying the conference, speaking to how the ACC feels much stronger than it did a year ago.

In the three games with both teams ranked, the ACC won two, and with Syracuse’s victory, that’s three wins against ranked squads.

The only other argument the SEC can claim is it beat ACC teams that have a good shot of making the NCAA Tournament. But we all know winning in the main event is better than victory in the mid-card.

In the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the SEC sent a record 14 teams to the big dance. It’s unrealistic to expect the league to be able to do it again, but there’s a great chance it still gets at least 10 schools in. It probably will end up with the most appearances out of every conference.

But to think it can again get two — or even one — spot in the Final Four seems shaky.

Not all wins carry the same weight. The SEC may have won the battle, but the ACC can win the war.

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Many were surprised when the Los Angeles Clippers announced that Chris Paul was no longer with the team, including his teammates James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, who expressed surprise at learning Paul had been sent home.

The Clippers decided to part ways with Paul after a reported three-hour discussion between Lawrence Frank, the president of basketball operations, and Paul at the team hotel in Atlanta before their game against the Hawks on Wednesday.

Frank emphasized that the decision to let Paul go was not due to a single incident; however, ESPN reported that the ongoing tension between Paul and head coach Ty Lue has been cited as a potential significant contributing factor, given how disruptive the relationship has been to the team.

‘I’m just as confused and shocked as everyone else in the world,’ Harden said after the Clippers defeated the Hawks on Wednesday, Nov. 3. ‘It definitely took me by surprise. It’s not just about Chris; there were many things we were dealing with. However, that’s out of my hands. I need to focus on what I can control. I suppose the front office believed that was the best decision for the organization.’

‘It was shocking to me,’ Leonard said. ‘I guess they had a conversation, and front office made a decision.’

Paul announced on social media earlier this month that he would retire from the NBA after 21 seasons.

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The United States and Canada are fierce rivals on the Olympic ice hockey stage.

Since the NHL first allowed its players to participate in the Olympics in 1998, the two nations have faced off in the knockout stages three times and the gold medal game twice: 2002 and 2010.

When you think of epic Olympic hockey moments by Team Canada players, I’d be shocked if your mind doesn’t immediately turn to Sidney Crosby and his 2010 accomplishment in Vancouver.

Crosby was on Canada’s Olympic squad for the first time in 2010 after being snubbed for the Torino Olympics in 2006, when the Canadians finished seventh, just ahead of the Americans in eighth.

Both teams had a much better tournament in Vancouver, with Canada and the United States facing off in the gold medal game.

Team USA forward Zach Parise tied the game with 24 seconds left in regulation, setting the stage for Crosby’s heroics in overtime. More on that later.

While Crosby is a shoo-in for having the best tournament on the international stage, other unforgettable Olympic performances by Team Canada NHL players involved key games against Team USA.

Top 5 Olympic performances by Team Canada players

5. Mario Lemieux, 2002

Mario Lemieux had six points in five games en route to Canada’s 2002 Olympic gold. While he didn’t put the team on his back as so often happened throughout his illustrious career, Lemieux came to life in the medal rounds.

The ‘Magnificent One’ posted three assists in the quarterfinal and semifinal victories over Belarus and Finland before setting up Paul Kariya in the gold medal game against Team USA. He finished one point behind Joe Sakic, Canada’s leading scorer at the tournament, despite playing one less game. 

4. Jarome Iginla, 2002

Jarome Iginla accomplished a lot during his storied career, but nothing, not even the Calgary Flames’ fairytale run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, compared to his exploits at the 2002 Olympics. 

Iginla scored four points in six games, three of which came in the 5-2 victory over Team USA in the final.

If you look up the definition of clutch, don’t be surprised if you see Iginla’s performance against the Americans as a supporting case study. As a caveat, his performance at the 2010 Olympics was equally impressive.

3. Joe Sakic, 2002

Sakic saved the best for last in 2002, scoring four of his seven points in the final against Team USA. The Hall of Famer put on a show on the world’s most prominent and high-pressure stage, setting up both of Iginla’s goals and scoring a pair, including the game-winner. 

He finished the tournament as Canada’s leading scorer, one point ahead of Lemieux and Steve Yzerman. His point haul was two points behind the tournament’s leading scorer, Mats Sundin of Sweden.

2. Carey Price, 2014

Canada has Carey Price to thank for its 2014 gold medal at the Sochi Olympics. In five games, Price was all but impenetrable, sporting a sensational 0.59 goals-against average and 0.972 save percentage. 

But it was his performances in the knockout stage that received heaping praise. Price secured back-to-back shutouts in the semifinal against Team USA and in the final versus Sweden to propel Canada to glory. He allowed just one goal in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Latvia.  

It will come as no surprise that Price followed up his otherworldly Olympics by winning the NHL’s Vezina Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Trophy in 2014-15.

1. Sidney Crosby, 2010

Crosby’s overtime goal against the Americans to secure gold will forever be etched in the annals of Canadian hockey history. 

While he didn’t score a point in the quarterfinal or semifinal, Crosby showed up when it mattered most, ensuring Canada won its first Olympic gold medal since 2002.  

Crosby finished the 2010 Olympics with seven points (four goals and three assists), one behind Jonathan Toews for the team lead and three adrift of the tournament’s leading scorer, Pavol Demitra of Slovakia.

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Here we go again.

After a resounding 99–1 defeat in the Senate earlier this year, the Big Tech oligarchs are hard at work doing what they do best: trying to sneak a massive corporate giveaway into must-pass legislation in the dead of night. This time, they’re targeting the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill essential to our military and national security, as the vehicle for decade-long AI amnesty. Or another must-pass bill, if the NDAA doesn’t work for them. Or even a legally questionable executive order, as their Hail Mary.

They tried this in July. And now, led once again by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., they want to ram through a federal takeover of AI with zero meaningful rules or even guardrails. They call it ‘federal preemption.’ But let’s be blunt: federal preemption with no federal rules is not governance. It’s amnesty. Total, blanket, corporate amnesty for trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists who have spent decades crushing competition, shuttering small businesses, canceling conservatives and harming children.

If their idea is so great, why are they terrified of public debate? Why are they running from votes? Why do they only try to pass this through 9,000-page must-pass bills in the dead of night?

Because they know the truth: If the American people ever saw what’s really in these proposals, the answer would be the same as last time: Hell. No.

Big Tech already showed us exactly what it does with immunity. Section 230 created a legal shield for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. These trillion-dollar monopolists used their government-granted amnesty to censor conservatives, manipulate elections, destroy competition and turn the Internet into a surveillance empire. Now they want the same deal for AI. But bigger. And more dangerous.

This ‘AI amnesty’ blocks states from protecting their own citizens. No state rules. No local safeguards. And absolutely no federal guardrails. A total vacuum, and the perfect playground for tech oligarchs who want to scrape every work of American creativity, censor every voice they dislike, experiment on children’s developing minds with unsafe AI tools and plant data centers wherever they please while working-class families foot the energy bill.

Big Tech insists this is necessary to ‘compete with China.’ That is nonsense. These companies spent years doing China’s bidding. Google killed America’s Project Maven, our drone AI program, because its woke employees protested helping the U.S. military. At the same time, Google was running Project Dragonfly, a censorship system built for the Chinese Communist Party. They wouldn’t help our troops, but they were happy to help the CCP censor its own citizens.

And now these same companies claim they’re our last defense against China? Please.

Their real concern isn’t China. It’s profit. They want carte blanche to steal every copyright in America, train their machines on it and cash in, all without paying a dime to the creators whose work built this country’s entertainment, journalism and cultural industries. They want to replace America’s creative economy with a copy-paste machine. And they want Congress to bless it.

The American people deserve better, and President Trump consistently demonstrates the leadership needed to stop this scam. When Big Tech and its lobbyists pressured him to accept AI amnesty earlier this year, he stood firm. He refused to sell out the American people to Silicon Valley. And that courage helped kill the deal 99–1.

The American people understand what’s at stake. We know Big Tech can’t be trusted, not with our data, not with our elections, and certainly not with artificial intelligence. We know we can’t ‘steal like China to compete against China,’ nor can we become digital sharecroppers on our own soil just to pad corporate profits.

If Congress wants to discuss federal preemption, fine. But it must get done through regular order. Public hearings. Public debate. Up-or-down votes. And only after legislation is drafted that protects the people Big Tech has targeted for years: conservatives, children, creators and communities. The 4 Cs must get protection in any AI deal.

Conservatives must finally gain protection from the censorship that these monopolists weaponized for decades. We must protect children from predatory AI systems, including chatbots that have advised depressed minors to kill themselves – and their parents. Or AI teddy bears – Pedo Bears – that speak in sexually explicit terms to kids. Creators deserve protection from the copyright theft that Big Tech openly admits it needs to train its models. And we must safeguard our communities from data centers that raise energy costs, drain water supplies and bulldoze residential neighborhoods, so Silicon Valley can build another server farm.

These are not radical demands. These are basic, commonsense protections in a free society. But Big Tech insists that any safeguards, any at all, will ‘slow innovation,’ ‘harm national security,’ ‘hurt competitiveness’ or even ‘help China.’ Those talking points are as dishonest as they are insulting.

Big Tech executives think they can buy Congress, hide behind fake national-security arguments and bully America into agreeing to their terms. They thought they could get away with it last time. They were wrong. With President Trump’s leadership, with grassroots conservatives mobilized, and with the sunlight of exposure, we beat them. And we will beat them again.

But only if Congress hears loud and clear: No AI amnesty. Not in the NDAA. Not in any other must-pass legislation. Not in an executive order. Not ever.

The Big Tech oligarchs spent hundreds of millions of dollars chasing Trump out of office in 2020. They’ve censored, silenced, de-platformed and canceled Trump, his aides and his allies. If we give these Big Tech oligarchs AI amnesty, it’s only so they can continue to censor conservatives, prey on children, drive-up electricity and water bills in communities and rip off creators.

If the tech oligarchs want a debate, they can step into the arena. They can defend their ideas in the open. They can answer for the children harmed, the conservatives censored, the creators robbed and the communities exploited. They can stop hiding behind lobbyists and must-pass bills and make their case like everyone else.

Until then, Congress must reject any attempt to slide this corporate giveaway into the NDAA, any other must-pass legislation or any executive order. No shortcuts. No back-room tricks. No surrender to the Silicon Valley oligarchy.

The stakes are too high. The consequences are too great. And the American people are watching.

Hell no to AI amnesty. Protect our children. Protect our creators. Protect our communities. Protect our country.

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The Detroit Lions’ season of injuries continues to mount up.

The Lions are set to be without multiple key contributors when they host the Dallas Cowboys (6-5-1) on ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Thursday, Dec. 4. The question remaining is whether star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown will be among them.

St. Brown exited Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day game against the Green Bay Packers after suffering an ankle injury when a lineman rolled on his leg from behind. His availability has been in doubt since.

Detroit enters Week 14 with a 7-5 record – eighth-best in the NFC – leaving them on the outside looking in to the playoff picture. They are battling to stay in the race and Lions fans are hopeful their All-Pro wide receiver will be available today.

Here’s the latest on St. Brown before ‘Thursday Night Football’ kickoff against the Cowboys.

Amon-Ra St. Brown injury update

The Lions have not yet made a decision about St. Brown’s status for ‘Thursday Night Football.’ Detroit listed him as ‘questionable’ on its final injury report and is expected to make a game-time decision about his status.

St. Brown has only before missed two games during his five-year NFL career to date. The last one he missed was in 2023 when he suffered an abdominal injury in Week 3. He played through it before missing Week 5 due to the injury. Prior to that, he suffered an identical injury to this ankle sprain in Week 3 of 2022, which saw him miss Week 4.

St. Brown failed to participate in practice this week, but the Lions have no plans to place him on IR, which would require that he be out for at least four weeks. He was initially classified as ‘week-to-week’ after suffering the low ankle sprain, per NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero.

Pelissero also noted the Lions will have a mini-bye because of the ‘Thursday Night Football’ matchup, which allows St. Brown extra time to recover if he can’t play against the Cowboys.

Detroit has been no stranger to playing without its stars on offense, with TE Sam LaPorta lost for the season.

Lions WR depth chart

The Lions have six receivers on their 53-man roster:

  1. Amon-Ra St. Brown (injured)
  2. Jameson Williams
  3. Kalif Raymond
  4. Isaac TeSlaa
  5. Tom Kennedy
  6. Dominic Lovett

Kalif Raymond and TE Brock Wright missed last week’s game, but they may be active for Thursday’s matchup against Dallas. Isaac TeSlaa and Tom Kennedy operated as the No. 2 and 3 WRs behind Jameson Williams after St. Brown exited on Thanksgiving.

Williams will be Jared Goff’s top target if St. Brown is sidelined. The 2022 first-round pick went off for 144 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions and a team-high 10 targets on Thanksgiving.

TeSlaa, a rookie third-round pick this season, could be more involved. His size at 6-4, 214 pounds makes him a legitimate red-zone threat.

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He may have been a Louisville Cardinal, but Will Stein grew up a ‘die-hard’ Kentucky Wildcats fan. Now, the former Oregon offensive coordinator will lead the Wildcats football program after being hired to replace Mark Stoops.

Stoops was the all-time winningest coach at Kentucky, racking up 82 wins. He barely finished his career there above .500, going 82-80 in that span. Kentucky missed bowl games in consecutive years for the first time in 10 seasons, exacerbating the urgency to show Stoops the door.

Here’s how we grade the hire:

Grade: B

Going the hotshot offensive coordinator route makes sense for Kentucky when you consider realistic options. The Wildcats landed a coach who’ll need no introduction to Kentucky. Stein is a Louisville native who played for the Cardinals — but, hey, he says he grew up rooting for the Wildcats, so all good there.

Mark Stoops served up some of the best seasons in Kentucky football history, but those days were finished. With the program heading in reverse, Kentucky swallowed a $38 million buyout to pull the plug.

Stein, 36, shot up the ranks quickly. As recently as 2019, he was an assistant coach at a Texas high school. His fast rise speaks to his success and ability to impress.

At Oregon, Stein coordinated one of the nation’s best offenses the past three seasons. He won’t have the same caliber of athlete at Kentucky, but after the Wildcats consistently produced one of the SEC’s most meager offenses under Stoops, Stein offers hope of fresh air — and hope of success through the air. Perhaps with Stein, Kentucky finally will produce a quality quarterback, a position that’s plagued Kentucky for years.

Stein coached Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore at Oregon. That’s a heck of a run.

He’s shifting from a program awash with NIL resources to a basketball school, and Stoops persistently grumbled he didn’t receive enough financial support. This is one of the SEC’s toughest jobs, and it’s not getting any easier. The Wildcats were on a downward trend throughout the NIL era, but sometimes a new hire can galvanize more booster bucks.

Stein’s lack of head coaching experience makes him a bit of a gamble, but he’s a gamble worth taking for Kentucky.

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